The @AuthorsCC book cricket tournament kicks off at 15.00 this afternoon, with a match so full of star power that it would not have disgraced the final: my Anglo-Saxon XI take on @benfalkwriter's 1990s Hollywood XI.

My team:

1. Offa
2. St Cuthbert
3. Beowulf
4. Alfred the Great
5. St Hilda of Whitby
6. Athelstan
7. The Venerable Bede (wkt)
8. Holland, T (c)
9. Æthelflæd
10. Hengist
11. Horsa

My team offers strength in depth both in the batting (with me batting as low as eight, there'll be no lack of sixes), and in the bowling (Æthelflæd is not known as the Leggie of the Mercians for nothing, & Athelstan is a formidable all-rounder in the mould of Ben Stokes)

A typically negative take on our batting order from notorious curmudgeon @jonawils https://twitter.com/jonawils/status/1247148238081228803?s=20

In the big #ASvBratPack match, the Brat Pack XI are reeling at 43-3. Hengist, with a fiery opening spell has all 3 wickets. Keanu clean bowled, Winona caught in the deep by Alfred the Great.

Hengist bags the first Michelle of the tournament. I get my first wicket, trapping John Candy lbw. Kevin Costner launching a counterattack. Brat Pack XI 123-6. #ASvBratPack

Brat Pack make 209-9 off their allotted overs. Costner top scorer with 44. 5 wickets for Hengist, 2 for me. Æthelflæd disappointing.

We let it slip with that last wicket partnership. Still, all to play for. Offa & St Cuthbert come out to open our innings. https://twitter.com/jonawils/status/1247169154395729920?s=21 https://twitter.com/jonawils/status/1247169154395729920

Offa out for a single. The dyke is breached. DAMN. 5-1. #ASvBratPack

St Cuthbert loses his off-stump. Anglo-Saxons 33-2.

SO. TENSE. #ASvBratPack

Beowulf out LBW to Ally Sheedy. (Not a sentence that has ever been typed before, I suspect.) Alfred the Great & St Hilda of Whitby rebuilding the innings. Anglo-Saxons 100-3. #ASvBratPack

Sheedy strikes again! St Hilda of Whiby out lbw! Anglo-Saxons 147-4 #ASvBratPack

Unbelievable tension. This is what high-octane, top flight sport is all about. #ASvBratPack

Alfred the Great brings up his 50. Great by name, great by nature. #ASvBratPack

Athelstan out cheaply, Alfred out for a brilliant 83, caught in the deep by Andrew McCarthy. Anglo-Saxons 194-6. 16 needed. I. AM. AT. THE. CREASE!!!! #ASvBratPack

John Candy gets me lbw.

Thank God. The Venerable Bede eases us to a 6 wicket victory. Alfred the Great coming to the rescue yet again.

So much for @jonawils, and his #ludicrous claim that we lacked batting strength in depth.

Feld dænnede
secgas hwate, siðþan sunne up
on morgentid; mære tungol
glad ofer grundas, Godes condel beorht,
eces Drihtnes, oð sio æþele gesceaft
sah to setle.

#ASvBratPack